Homeowner Forum / Cleaning / May 2006

I moved recently, and the bathtub and surround tile (glossy 4.25" square
tiles) had at least 20 years of grime on them. I tried every normal
bathroom cleaner I could find, and nothing even made a visible difference.

I was just about to give up and replace the tile (and I had  already bought
an aftermarket enamel paint kit on the tub) when I accidently found out
that whatever the "TSP" stuff is nowadays (without phosphate) seemed to
help- just a little. Now, if I spray a tile, then use a comet-type cleaner
along with a motorized scrubber, I can get one tile clean about every 10
minutes. So....

now I know that this stuff comes off, and that the tile looks ok
underneath. The tub looks ok underneath too, in my test cleaning areas. But
my wife is gonna kill me if it takes me 2 years to clean this tub, with
nothing else getting done in the meantime. What else should I be trying to
get this residue off? There has to be something strong enough (and
relatively safe) that I can use to make this go faster. I'm already
planning on bleaching and re-sealing the grout, so I don't mind if whatever
I use eats off the old grout sealant, assuming that any is even still there
(besides, that would just make it easier to bleach the grout).

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Keith